Photos
by idonthaveapennamename
Summary: Brittany and Artie look at an old photo album and find a person they do not expect..
1. Chapter 1

Brittany dragged her index finger across the books on the shelf, feeling the unevenness of the differently sized books."Woow" She dragged out the word as she let her jaw drop slightly.

"You have soo many books Artie" Brittany looked away from the shelf, moving her gaze towards her boyfriend, who was stretched out on the couch in the living room flipping through TV channels. "Have you read all of these? There must be at least a million in here"

Artie looked away from the TV and smiled at Brittany, who had turned her back to him once again, focusing on the many books. "Err.. Well… I don't think there are exactly a _million_ books, but yeah I've read a lot of them why?" Artie smirked, it was cute how excited she could get about such small things.

Brittany stared back at him wide eyed, "How many?"

Artie straightened up on the couch, "Dunno" he shrugged. "They aren't all mine though, a lot of them are like my parents' text books and stuff like that"

Brittany focused on the books once again, and kept walking back and forth in front of the shelves, going past each book, moving further and further down one shelf at a time. "I don't have a lot of books.." She ran her fingers across an encyclopedia, removing the dust that had settled on it "But I like touching them." She looked up at Artie and smiled innocently "Do you ever touch your books?"

Artie returned her smile, grinning as he answered her question "Not really." He furrowed his eyebrows "Do you.. Uhmm.. Brit, do you want to.. borrow a book? I mean we could probably find one for you?"

Brittany stood wide-eyed for a moment, considering her boyfriend's proposal for a minute, then jumped up in excitement while clapping her hands, "YES!" She shrieked and turned back to the bookshelf, looking with determination for the book she wanted to choose.

Artie pulled at his legs and sat up straight on the couch, then transferred himself into his chair and rolled over to Brittany, resting his hand on the small of her back.

Artie looked over the books, pulling a blue book from one of the lower shelves. "How 'bout this one? My sister used to love it– it's a pretty easy read actually" Brittany looked over at the thin book in her boyfriend's hands, and wrinkled her nose while shaking her head childishly, "No I want to choose it."

Brittany, having reached the last shelf, sat down on the floor and crossed her legs studying the books on the bottom row. Suddenly her eyes went wide, and she pulled out a large brown book in front of her "This one" She smiled up at Artie, showing him what she had found.

"Uhh, that's not a book" Artie giggled (a very manly giggle), taking the heavy leather bound album from her hands. "It's my family album" He flipped through the pages quickly, showing Brittany.

"See? Pictures" He snapped the album shut, leaning down trying to reach the empty space where the album had been sitting. But before he could reach all the way, Brittany had already snatched the big book from his hands.

She smiled widely, while starting to flip through pages "Oooooh, look at this one Artie!" She smiled, looking down at a little Artie who was smiling and waving at the camera.

Artie rested his elbows on his legs, bending down towards the sitting Brittany so he could get a better look. "Yup, that's me.. Must have been about six there I guess" He smiled crookedly, half at Brittany's excitement over the pictures, half at the memory of himself running around in the backyard.

He swallowed nervously, remembering what pictures would be coming up, "Hey how 'bout you put that away, and we find you a book huh?" Artie grabbed at the album, but Brittany moved it just in time, and he only caught air.

"No" She pouted. "I wanna look at baby pictures of you" She flipped the page and turned away from Artie so he couldn't reach her.

Artie turned his attention towards the bookshelf again. He searched for another book that would be easy enough for Brittany to read, yet still be big enough so she didn't feel like he was being condescending. Even though she would probably enjoy his Dr Seuss books, he doubted that she would be happy with the suggestion.

He glanced nervously over at Brittany who was turning the pages of the album, carefully examining each photograph that included Artie.

Oh god she was already looking at him in the hospital. _Shit shit shit. _He felt sick to his stomach. He briefly considered the thought of flinging himself out of his chair to grab the book from her, but as he studied her face it really didn't seem like she cared. She was ooh'ing and aah'ing at each picture. She even kept smiling, as she looked at the weak young Artie in his hospital bed, white as a sheet, half smiling at the camera.

He remembered showing these pictures to Tina, and she had just looked at him with sympathy and tears and her eyes. Why wasn't Brittany freaking out? Did she not get what had happened to him?Was she hiding her pity from him? Maybe she didn't…

"Hey why haven't you told me that you already knew Mr. Schue?" Artie jumped slightly in his seat, taken aback by the sudden sound of his girlfriend's bewildered voice. She looked up at Artie with a confused look on her face, tilting her head to the side while squinting her eyes.

Artie mirrored his girlfriend's puzzled expression, lifting an eyebrow "Say what?"

Brittany stabbed her index finger at the picture of a young man holding a guitar, standing in the middle of a group of young children in the hospital. "Here, see? It's Mr. Schue!" She slid her finger across the photo, landing on himself in a hospital borrowed wheelchair, "And there you are! See?"

Artie shook his head, reaching down and grabbing the album from Brittany's hands to get a closer look.

"What? No that's not Mr. Schue what are you talking about?" Artie pushed the page closer to his face _What was his name?_ "That guy used to come and play music for the kids... You know.. while I was in, in, the hospital see? That's not…" Artie got a closer look at the young curly haired man, and stared in shock.

Because there, in the midst of a bunch of young smiling kids in a brightly colored hospital room was Mr. Schue.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I wasn't actually sure if I wanted to continue this story... Buut staying up really late does weird things to ya, so here it is, just one more chapter left - not sure when i will have that up. Thanks to the people who reviewed on the last chapter - enjoy :)**

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><p>Artie stared up at the ceiling with his arms behind his neck, breathing heavily. How could he not have known this? How could he have forgotten him? Why was he freaking out?<p>

Having Mr. Schue come and sing to him and the other children, was the only good memory from his time in the hospital. How could he not have remembered him?

Nothing seemed as bad when there was music in the room, everything would be dulled - if just for a little while: The sympathetic looks from his parents, the memories of his once living legs, the boredom, the pain, everything would just.. Seem brighter.

Did Mr. Schue remember? No. No way, he would have said something.

But maybe. Maybe, he just didn't want to embarrass Artie, or upset him, by talking about it? Maybe he _did_ remember, but _he_ was the one who just didn't want to talk about it? Maybe he just didn't remember Artie. It's not like he stuck out in a hospital setting full of sick kids in wheelchairs.

Artie groaned audibly and threw the covers off of himself, heaving the extra pillow out from underneath his head and flinging it against the wall. He was driving himself nuts with all of this thinking. How could he go to glee practice tomorrow feeling like this? He wouldn't be able look at Mr. Schue the same way now. He couldn't even look at himself now.

Why was it upsetting him this much?

His teacher had been there at a time in his life, where he hadn't exactly been there himself. He had seen Artie at his most vulnerable time, and he had probably understood him and his feelings, before he even understood them himself.

No one in glee club knew many details about what had happened to him, and now it turned out that his teacher might not just know a little. He might know _everything._

Artie couldn't remember very much from the first couple of months in the hospital. He remembered bits and pieces, but mostly just feelings and emotions. How he had felt when he realized that he couldn't feel his legs, how his mother would look at him, how it felt the first time he got to feel the cool breeze on his face again after months of being cooped up inside, how the music made him feel. He had tried to talk to his mom about it once, but she had just broken down and started sobbing. What if Mr. Schue could remember things that Artie couldn't?

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><p>"Artie?"<p>

"Dude, he's totally gone" Puck waved his hand in front Artie's face, looking over at Finn who was trying not to laugh at the blank stare.

"Do you think we should call someone? He seems a little out of it." Finn said, even though he was still sporting a huge grin on his face.

"No man, I got this" Puck smirked, while trying to lift Artie's glasses off the bridge of his nose. He quickly retracted his hands with an overly dramatic gasp, when he was met with a slap to the knuckles from the concentrated boy in front of him. "Hey!" Artie looked up confused at the two boys standing in front of him.

"Dude what's going on?" Finn grinned "You were just staring for like ten minutes, man" He grabbed a chair and pushed it closer while sitting down next to Artie.

"Oh.." Artie dragged his fingers through his hair "I was just thinking.. I.. I uhh didn't even realize I was staring" He let out a halfhearted chuckle. "Just got some stuff on my mind"

"Look man" Puck started, while walking over and picking up an acoustic guitar up from the stand in the corner "I would ask you if you wanted to talk about it, but.." He slipped the guitar strap across his body, and started strumming a chord while sitting down on the other side of Artie, "I'm not a friggin girl."

He looked down at the guitar and started tuning the first string, "and I'm definitely not trying to get into your pants either." He looked up again and winked at the taller boy "I'll leave that to Finn."

"Heey" Finn glared at Puck, who was already busy tuning the guitar again, and not noticing the menacing glare he was receiving. He cleared his throat and asked in a lower voice, "Uhm, yeah, so what's going on dude?"

Artie considered just spilling everything to Finn, he had such a concentrated and caring look on his face. But telling him about Mr. Schue would just call for even more questions, and he wasn't sure if he was ready to discuss those things just yet. Especially not with Finn, of all people.

He had barely even discussed the accident with Tina while they were still going out. And luckily Brittany was content in just knowing the bare minimum about it. He was sure that Tina had told everyone else about the accident, because no one besides her had ever actually asked him directly about why he was in the chair.

"I'm just a little tired" Artie responded with a wide smile that didn't completely reach his eyes. Just then, Brittany saved him from the questioning eyes of Finn by walking in through the door and skipping happily over, planting a big kiss on his cheek.

Artie had been scared that Brittany would out him as soon as she saw Mr. Schue step into the room a couple of moments later, but it seemed as though she had forgotten everything about the night before.

Glee club passed quickly with all of the thoughts passing through Artie's mind, and as Mercedes belted out the last note of the song and everyone started leaving the room, Artie found his hands on the push rims on his chair wheeling himself towards his teacher.

"Mr. Schue?"


End file.
